VIA 78, Several Times

During my past visits to southern Ontario, I had the opportunity to shoot VIA train 78 several times. Why that particular train? Well, it's the last VIA train to travel between Windsor and Toronto in the daylight. There are two trains from Toronto that come afterward, but both arrive after dark (except at the height of summer).

First up is VIA 78 from September 10. To catch this one, I drove through Tilbury, Ontario and continued north until I found the VIA Rail tracks. On my way through Tilbury I spotted the CP tracks just north of town, and as I was still well over a kilometre away from the crossing I saw the lights go on and the gates go down. A CP freight train blasted through and all I could do is watch as I drove along the road. I have had nothing but bad luck with catching CP in southern Ontario - that was 0/2 for seeing but not photographing CP trains.

Anyway, I was at the VIA Rail track in plenty of time for VIA 78. I didn't want to go hunting around for a better location for fear of missing the train, so I planned my shot here at mile 77.31. I would be shooting into the sun as the train approached, so I elected to stand behind the signal box to keep the sun glare down. After some waiting, I heard the horn in the distance and the train approached.


As the train rounded the bend in front of me, I grabbed a quick shot.


Nothing like the sun shining on your circular polarizer to show just how dirty it is!

The sun was great for the going-away shot, though!


For my next VIA 78, I decided to head over to Chatham, Ontario to see the station and shoot the train there. I had scouted around and decided to try to shoot it at the station and then rush over to shoot it crossing a bridge over a tributary of the Thames River.

Here's VIA 902 at the head of a 3-car VIA 78 at the station.


I high-tailed it over to Sass Road on the other side of the stream. The light was not great but I grabbed a half-decent shot of VIA 78 crossing the two-track bridge.


Nice light on the going-away shot again.


After VIA 78 left, I went back to the station to get some better shots of it.


The next night I headed into Windsor to shoot VIA 78 as it left the station. You may recall I saw VIA 78 there before... at the old station. The new station had just gone into operation a week or so before. Here's VIA 3351 on the end of the train at the new station.


You might notice that VIA 3351 was on the tail end of the previous day's VIA 78 too.

I took a shot into the sun and tried some HDR on it. I'm not entirely happy with the results.


After grabbing these quick shots, I drove up a little ways and then captured this view of the train heading out, with the Detroit downtown looming behind.


I hope you've enjoyed this view of the Corridor trains, a little different than my usual Canadian photos.